Macleans magazine is at it again, with another lopsided article that paints Canada's legal profession in a less than favourable light. (Perhaps the magazine was inspired by the publicity that followed its ill-conceived Lawyers Gone Bad edition.)
This time, Macleans focusses on high legal fees in No justice for the middle class - Why only the very rich and very poor can afford to hire a lawyer.
Most lawyers will agree that access to justice for Canada's middle class is an increasing challenge. It has been a topic of much discussion of late, including recent comments by a sitting Supreme Court of Canada Justice and by the President of the Ontario Bar Association
In exploring this issue, however, it would have been at least somewhat balanced for Macleans to have considered the levelling effects of contingency fee agreements in creating enhanced access to judicial processes for the public.
Newsflash: Ontario lawyers don't always bill on an hourly basis.
Relatively new in Ontario after a long history of regulatory prohibition, lawyers' contingency fee agreements typically provide for the delivery of legal services by lawyers with reasonably little or no financial contribution by the client to legal fees until the matter is successfully resolved.
Contingency fee arrangements in Ontario now enable access to the Courts for a bevy of injured, wrongfully dismissed and otherwise wronged individuals who have been required to commence litigation in Ontario Courts to secure restitution or compensation.
Many Ontario civil litigation firms (including ours) offer contingency fee arrangements, where appropriate, to plaintiffs in certain kinds of Employment Law, Personal Injury and Civil Litigation claims. For clients with just and provable damages claims, these fee arrangements largely eliminate the onerous financial burden of litigation and make the pursuit of compensation in the courts readily possible.
I would not suggest contingency fees are a complete answer to the problem of "access to justice," as they are not. In our experience and practice, however, contingency fee arrangements really do make entry into Ontario's courtrooms entirely possible and easily practicable for numerous civil litigants who rightfully require access to justice after suffering genuine damages or losses.
Finally, I'll postscript my own comments with a healthy dose of perspective on the Macleans article from the popular American law blog, Overlawyered:
High lawyers' fees said to be pricing middle class Canadians out of the justice system, but it must be said the numbers cited sound pretty low by U.S. standards [Maclean's]
- Garry J. Wise, Toronto
Visit our Toronto Law Firm website: www.wiselaw.net
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